India is fast becoming a Pakistan, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said Friday while describing CIA chief Leon E. Panetta’s meeting with Home Minister P. Chidambaram as “a new stage in Indo-US collaboration”.
“This is the first time an American CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) chief has been accorded a meeting with the home minister in India,” the CPI-M politburo said in a statement.
“Apart from meeting his intelligence counterparts in India, the CIA chief has been received at the political level, signalling the new status of the CIA in India.
“This is a pointer of how things have changed under the Manmohan Singh government,” he said. “India is fast becoming like Pakistan where the CIA and FBI chiefs meet with the interior minister and prime minister.”
The CPI-M added: “The CIA is notorious for its interventions in the political affairs of various countries including destabilising governments considered inimical to US interests.
“The role played by US security and military agencies in the country and the manner in which the Congress-led government is promoting such ties should be a matter of serious concern for all those who wish to protect national sovereignty and the integrity of our democratic system.”